Learn about the Bitnami Support Tool

The Bitnami Support Tool is a command line tool that gathers relevant information for the Bitnami Support Team to debug certain issues in Bitnami Stacks. This tool is located in the installation directory of the stack at /opt/bitnami.

Understand the information gathered

The Bitnami Support Tool retrieves two kinds of data:

System/Stack Information

Configuration and log files

System/stack information

Basic information about the stack and its host system such as:

OS Family and Distribution.

Machine IP, hostname, CPU, RAM, Swap memory and free disk space.

Stack name, version, type and platform.

Stack installation directory and user.

This kind of information is very useful in order to debug performance issues.

Configuration and log files

Some of the configuration and log files of the stack components are retrieved in order to identify possible misconfiguration and errors.

IMPORTANT: Please note that some components’ configuration and log files can contain credentials or vulnerable information. Despite the interest for debugging purposes of some of this files, the Bitnami Support Tool skips those files in order to guarantee the security and privacy of the users.

IMPORTANT: For security reasons, never post or disclose your server’s SSL private key in a public forum.

Run the Bitnami Support Tool

The Bitnami Support Tool is included in every Bitnami Stack released since November 1st 2017. In order to check whether your stack includes it or doesn’t, please check the notes in the changelog file of the Stack you are using. You can easily access this file by browsing to https://bitnami.com/stack/APP_NAME/changelog.txt

NOTE: You need to replace the placeholder APP_NAME with the name of the application you are using. For instance, if you are using the Bitnami Wordpress Stack go to https://bitnami.com/stack/wordpress/changelog.txt

If your stack does not include the tool, you can download the latest version from this link.

The Bitnami Support Tool first tries to find the Bitnami Stack. If it can’t find it you will be prompted to type it. The default directory on Bitnami VMs and Cloud Images is /opt/bitnami on Bitnami VMs and Cloud Images.

After a valid installation has been found the tool will automatically check for updates. If there is an available update the tool will ask you to download it. Accept this option; your stack might not include the latest version.

Once the directory is found you will be prompted to upload the information to the Bitnami servers. Click “Yes” to share it with the Bitnami Support Team.

Finally, the tool will upload the information collected to a secure bucket which is only accessible by Bitnami Support agents. Note the code printed by the tool as this will be needed by your Bitnami support agent to retrieve the data collected by the tool. If the tool is unable to upload the support bundle, refer to the next section for instructions on how to upload it manually.

Contact Bitnami support through the community forums and provide the code generated by the tool.

NOTE: It is not necessary for you to email log files or other data files to Bitnami support. Bitnami support agents can retrieve the information collected about your stack using the code generated by the support tool.

Manually upload the Bitnami Support Tool bundle

If the Bitnami Support Tool successfully creates a support bundle but fails to upload it, you can manually upload the support bundle file to a file sharing server, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, and share the link with your Bitnami Support agent in a private message. To share the link in a private message:

Click your profile icon in the Bitnami Community site.

Select the “Message” action from the menu.

Select your Bitnami Support agent as the recipient of the message and paste the link to the support bundle.

Send the message.

Notify the Bitnami Support agent that you have uploaded the support bundle manually in the public thread.

IMPORTANT: Do not share the link to the support bundle in the public Bitnami Community thread or any other public forum as it contains detailed diagnostic information about your system.